


mountain sounds

by lullatone



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, F/M, Lumberjack AU, i guess?, more appropriately called the 'chim lives in the woods au and has a beard'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:46:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25735261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lullatone/pseuds/lullatone
Summary: Anyway, the point is Maddie’s supposed to be on vacation right now.Instead she’s stuck on some dirt road with a flat tire, no cell service, and a sneaking suspicion that she made a wrong turn a few miles back.AKA: Maddie gets stranded and meets a very handsome bearded man in the woods.
Relationships: Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han, also background buck and eddie
Comments: 7
Kudos: 35





	mountain sounds

**Author's Note:**

> oh BOY! i really hope you guys like this, i had a blast writing it. 
> 
> this idea honestly came from "okay but what if chim always had a very handsome salt and pepper beard and longer pushed back hair ALL the time and he was also wearing a flannel shirt" and out came this fic!
> 
> i also included a picture so you can really get a feel for what i was aiming for!!!

Anyway I hope yall enjoy!!! lots of love!!!

**

Maddie Buckley considers herself to be a simple person.

She doesn’t ask for much. 

In fact ever since finally filing the divorce papers from her shitty husband, all she’s wanted was some peace and quiet, which is why she agreed to come up to the woods in the first place. 

Buck had convinced her to come and join him, Eddie, and Christopher for a few days in the woods of Crestline, about an hour and some change away from LA. Eddie’s friend had a cabin and was willing to let them use it for some rest and relaxation. 

So here Maddie was, going to join her brother and his fiance and his pseudo son so she could get away from her apartment for a few days and celebrate finally being free from Doug and get him off her mind once and-

Anyway, the point is Maddie’s supposed to be on vacation right now.

Instead she’s stuck on some dirt road with a flat tire, no cell service, and a sneaking suspicion that she made a wrong turn a few miles back. 

After realizing her options are limited, she grabs her backpack and starts walking up the road. The town she passed through was too far back, and in her mind the key to cell reception is higher elevation. There’s a part of her that wants to stay in her car and pray to god someone passes by soon, but Maddie hates the idea of being a sitting duck. 

She regrets this idea about fifteen minutes into her walk, sweating profusely through her shirt and wishing she had tied her hair up into a bun that morning. She really wasn’t prepared to hike anywhere today, and here brown boots were more fashionable than practical which is probably why she ends up tripping over herself and skinning her knee on a log.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” 

Maddie inspects the rip in her jeans, her favorite pair of course, and groans. She can feel splinters in her skin and she scratches at it lightly, trying to dislodge them. When it only furthers to bury them deeper into her skin, she gives up and sits on the log that caused her the pain in the first place. 

She resigns herself to dying in the woods when she sees it. A small path, clearly man made, dug out amongst the trees and weeds next to the road. It leads up into the woods and while Maddie knows she shouldn’t wander off, she also knows a path might mean a house, which means people, which means cellphone and water and _maybe_ even air conditioning. 

The path doesn’t look like it leads into nothingness, so she takes a chance and walks, ears perking up when after a minute she thinks she hears...music?

The woods suddenly clear, and as Maddie follows the dirt path and crests a small hill, she sees two things. 

The first thing is a small cabin, set into the grass a few feet away. It looks inviting and well kept, at least from the outside, and she assumes she’s in the backyard by the screen door and small porch attached to the house.

The second thing is a man kneeling on the ground with his back to her, humming along as a battery operated radio croons on the ground next to him. She can’t see the full picture, but he seems to be gardening, inspecting tomatoes before pulling them gently off their vines and putting them into the colander next to him. The radio sputters, the song fading in and out, and Maddie can’t imagine what station he’s even getting up here.

_“-with it baby, ‘cause you’re fine and you’re mine and you-”_

Maddie hates to interrupt the man’s good time, but she _is_ still stranded in the woods. 

“Uh, hello!”

The man turns around, obviously surprised seeing someone invading his solitude. The dark beard he’s sporting is exceptionally bushy but well kept, kindly framing his face. It does nothing to cover the smile that emerges, white and blinding.

“Hi.” The man stands up, wiping his hands against his jean clad thighs. “Can I help you?” 

Maddie looks at him for a long moment. There’s something about him that makes her feel at ease, which is probably why she’s allowing herself to stand in front of him in the first place. She knows how to spot a liar, a manipulator from a mile away, and this man isn’t any of those things. His eyes are kind, his smile genuine. He’s also not bad to look at. 

The dark beard is connected to hair that’s equally as dark and thick, naturally pushed back to accommodate the heat.

Maddie mentally kicks herself for the long silence, blurting out the first thing on her tip of her tongue.

“I’m lost.” 

The man smiles again, seemingly hiding a laugh. “Yeah, seems like it.”

Maddie starts lightly scratching at the back of her hand, a nervous habit. 

“I got a flat a couple miles down the road and my phone has no service and I was hoping maybe you had a phone or….an extra tire.”

With an amused look on his face, the man runs a hand through his hair, head tilted. “A phone? Never heard of one of those.” When Maddie’s expression stays neutral he winces, holding up his hands. “Sorry, bad joke. Of course I have a phone.” 

Maddie sighs in relief, still unmoving from her spot on the grass. The man takes her in, eyes looking her up and down when they stop on her legs. 

“Did you know you’re bleeding?”

“Oh sh- _really_?”

Maddie lifts up her leg and sees the blood pooling around her knee where she had tripped earlier, the denim dark and dirty. She huffs, tipping her head back at the sky and mentally cursing whatever higher power made her day so bad.

“I uh, tripped while I was walking. It’s fine though.”

“Doesn’t look like it’s fine.” His concern sounds genuine, a worried crease on his brow. The man removes the gardening gloves Maddie hadn’t even realized he was wearing, and he wipes the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. “How bout you come inside, I patch up your knee, and you can also use my phone. I have a landline.” 

Maddie’s surprised when her first instinct is to say yes. She knows how this looks. When a man you just met in the middle of the woods invites you into his house, you’re probably supposed to say no. The only thing is Maddie trusts her gut and her gut is telling her she’s somewhere safe. 

Besides, if things go south she’s got a pocket knife in her backpack and a hell of a right hook (according to Buck anyway).

The man crosses his arms in front of his chest as he waits for an answer, gloves still in hand. 

Very _strong_ arms with _very_ nice hands.

She sighs, offering a smile in thanks. “That sounds great.” 

The man leans down, grabbing his colander full of vegetables and starting towards the cabin. It takes him seconds to climb the stairs and open the screen door, holding it and looking back at Maddie. He nods his head towards the inside.

“I can get you some water too, if you want. You look like you need it.”

_‘Rude’_ , thinks Maddie for only a second before she realizes _yeah_ she probably does look like she needs some hydration. 

Upon entering, Maddie realizes ‘small house’ was probably a better description than ‘cabin’. It’s small but not restrictive, a cozy looking living room and kitchen taking up the main part of the house. She can see the front door along with a small hallway that she assumes must lead to bedrooms and a bathroom. It’s not a plaid monstrosity like most homes in the woods are apt to be, but it feels warm, well lived in and well loved. There’s not much decor; a few photos on the wall she can’t quite make out, a cowboy hat hanging on the coat rack in the corner. 

She’s scrutinizing the man's decorating skills (or lack thereof) in her head when he pulls out a chair at the kitchen table.

“Here sit. I’ll go get my first aid kit.” 

She obliges, setting her backpack down next to her and watching as he goes over to his kitchen cabinets. Maddie wishes she wasn’t given such an ample opportunity to check out her mystery mountain man but, she shouldn’t look a gift horse in the month.

He’s _handsome_ , okay, and it’s been a while since Maddie’s allowed herself to really look at someone and admire what’s in front of her. Not like Doug didn’t look at every woman who ever walked by, but now there’s no guilt attached. She’s completely free. 

He’s clearly dressed for outdoor work and comfort, a plain white t-shirt covered in dirt and dust that clings nicely to his chest, and a pair of jeans that showcase his lean legs. His shoulders look strong compared to his exceptionally narrow hips, especially with the flannel tied around it. Maddie hadn’t noticed it before, but it swings around his waist as he deposits his tomatoes into the sink with one hand and opens a cabinet with the other. It’s a lovely faded green, clearly washed and worn a thousand times. Maddie can imagine that it probably smells like cedar and pine and other things that you find in candles and body wash that boast about being ‘strong’ and ‘natural’ and ‘rugged’. 

Maddie’s thinking about what the man himself might smell like under all that dirt and beard and lean muscle when he returns, setting a glass of water down in front of her. He pulls a chair out next to her, setting it up so she can put her leg straight out across his knees. The first aid bag is open on the table, bursting with everything from a bottle of bee sting ointment to a suture kit. 

The man opens up a disinfectant wipe, dabbing it at Maddie’s knee. The dried blood comes away easily as he gently wipes on and around her skin. 

Maddie takes a sip of water, relaxing into the chair.

“So is it too late for me to ask you your name?”

The man chuckles, grabbing another wipe from his bag.

“I thought you’d never ask. It’s Howie. But everyone calls me Chimney.”

“Chimney?”

“Long story, but it’s what stuck.” He finishes cleaning her knee. “And you?”

“Maddie. Everyone calls me….well, Maddie.”

There’s a sparkle in Chimney’s eyes as he shakes his head. He liked her joke, and it makes Maddie swell with pride.

“Well it’s nice to have you here, despite the circumstances I guess.” 

“Do you have guests often?”

“Not like you.” As the statement leaves his mouth he blushes, realizing how it could be taken. It’s covered mostly by the beard, and it makes Maddie want to pout in disappointment. “Sorry uh- I didn’t mean that in a bad way I just meant-”

“You don’t usually get strangers crashing into your yard with wounded knees?”

So Maddie’s flirting a little, sue her. 

Chimney nods. “Exactly.” 

He reaches into his bag, pulling out a professional looking pair of tweezers, shiny and well taken care of. 

“Believe it or not, I actually like visitors. Just cause I live in the middle of the woods doesn’t mean I’m a weirdo.”

“Ya know, that’s exactly something a weirdo would say.”

He laughs this time, _really_ laughs, a lung squeezing raspy sound that matches the timbre of his voice and Maddie realizes she needs to hear it again at least a few more times before she leaves today. 

He wraps a strong hand around her knee, leaning in close to inspect the damage.

“I’m serious though. My best friend came up last weekend with her wife and son. We camped, we dined outside, the whole nine yards.” 

Maddie hums in response. Chims palm is warm through her jeans and he’s wielding the tweezers with an expertise that Maddie recognizes immediately.

“Did you go to medical school?”

He clicks his tongue, not looking away from her knee.

“I was a paramedic.”

Maddie notes the emphasis on the ' _was’_ , the way his voice strains a little at the seams, and decides not to continue down that line of questioning. However she realizes now that it makes perfect sense. It explains why when she showed up his first instinct was _‘help’_ and not _‘why is there a woman in my backyard’._

Silence falls again, but it’s nice. Comfortable. Maddie doesn’t feel the need to fill the air with conversation, and she doesn’t think Chim does either.

She’s busy looking at the decidedly attractive grey in his beard and the way it matches the hair at his temples when she winces, her knee jolting in his lap.

“Ow! Sorry, these splinters just hurt.” 

“No need to apologize, I get it.” He grabs a wipe from the table, wiping away a droplet of blood. “Some of these are in here kinda deep so it’ll probably sting a little.”

Chim wraps his palm around her leg a little tighter to keep it in place, and Maddie ignores the pleasant shiver that runs down her spine. 

He’s poised to start again when he sticks out his elbow towards her in offering. “You can hold onto my arm, if you want.” 

Maddie’s eyebrows shoot up, but he doesn’t comment, instead just goes back to his work with a satisfied smirk on his face that he doesn’t try to hide.

It’s a sly move, their current situations equivalent to letting a girl hide in your arms during a scary movie for protection, but Maddie can’t say she’s not impressed. 

She accepts the offer, wrapping her hand around his bicep which she can’t really do anyway, her thumb nowhere near being able to meet the rest of her fingers. It’s strong and very nice to hold on to when she has to squeeze as he pulls a particularly large splinter out of her skin. 

While he works on the last few, Maddie wonders if the muscle comes from exercise or something more outdoorsy, like chopping wood, and has he ever done it shirtless and maybe could Maddie see that sometime and-

“Alright, all done.” 

Maddie looks down at her knee, splinter free and covered with a clean bandage. She clears her throat, letting go of Chimney’s arm and leaning back in her chair, betrayed by the blush on her cheekbones. 

He rises from his chair, gathering up his kit and zipping it all back up into the bulging bag. 

“So if you wanna call someone, the phones over by the back door. Reception is spotty up here at best so I kept the landline for occasions like this.” Chim throws the bag back into the correct cabinet, stopping by the sink to wash his hands. “I’m gonna run out to my shed in the back. I _should_ have a spare tire back there that’ll make your car driveable.” He shoots Maddie a charming smile before striding outside, the door swinging shut behind him. 

Maddie walks over to the door, leaning her hip against the wall as she lifts the phone off the cradle. She’s lucky she took to remembering Buck’s number by heart, and she can only pray that he has cell reception on the other side of the woods. 

It only rings twice before a voice comes through, one that is decidedly not her brothers. 

_“Hi Maddie!”_

She smiles, picturing her soon to be nephew in her head.

“Hi Chris! Where’s your Buck?”

_“He’s helping Daddy out on the grill. We’re having hotdogs when you get here!”_

Maddie’s heart sinks a little at the idea of keeping the boy from his meal, knowing he’s a stickler on waiting till everyones there to eat. Just another one of the things that made him so damn sweet.

“That sounds super yummy sweetie. Can you get Buck for me? And tell him it’s important.”

She can almost hear him frown over the phone. _“Are you okay?”_

“I am! I pinky promise. Just some boring adult stuff I gotta talk to him about.” 

Chris giggles before putting the phone down, and Maddie listens as he walks away and yells for her brother. She focuses her attention through the screen door again, watching for Chim to make his return, _hopefully_ with a tire. Footsteps pound on the other end of the line and she can hear shuffling as the phone gets picked up off the table. 

_“Mads? Whats up, shouldn’t you be here already?”_

“Mmm. So about that.”

She goes on to explain her terrible sense of direction, the flat tire, and her chance encounter with probably the world's kindest recluse in California. 

Buck sighs over the phone, and she can practically see him pinching the bridge of his nose.

_“And you’re positive this guy is okay? Cause if you want you can walk back to the car and I can come find you, I’m sure it wouldn’t take that long-”_

“Buck, honey, I’m _fine_. I promise.”

Buck goes on to explain facts about car safety when Maddie finally sees movement in the backyard.

Chim returning with a spare tire, _thank god_ , but it’s the sole fact that he’s carrying it with one hand as one would carry a purse that has Maddie’s mouth going dry.

_“-Mads are you listening to me right now?”_

She blinks a few times and turns away from the back door lest she be literally caught with her mouth hanging open.

“Yes, sorry. So it looks like we’ve got a spare and we can go fix my car. I promise I’ll see you soon, okay?” 

Buck begrudgingly agrees, and the siblings say their _‘I love you’s’_ before Maddie hangs up. 

Maddie hears the back door open, Chim tapping his boots against the mat in the kitchen.

“So lucky for you, I do have a tire. It’s not perfect, but it’ll do.” She thanks him profusely, and he rubs the back of his neck, shy for the first time all day. “Really it’s no big deal. We oughta get going though.” 

He grabs a set of keys from the hook by the backdoor and Maddie makes sure to grab her backpack before following him out. She follows him around to the front of the house, which is just as quaint and lovely as the back, a neatly trimmed front yard with trees and hedges, and flowers planted all along the front. There’s a gravel driveway that leads into a tiny garage with a red truck parked in front of it. She watches as Chim puts the tire in the back of the truck, a bag of tools along with it. 

He heads to the passenger side door, opening it with a loud creak. 

“Your chariot, madame.”

Maddie rolls her eyes and smiles, accepting the helping hand as she hoists herself and her backpack in. Chim closes the door and sprints around to the drivers side, getting in with practiced ease.

Maddie’s grateful when he cranks the air conditioner as the car sputters to life and they head down the driveway towards the main road. 

Maddie watches as the woods pass by out the windows when Chimney clears his throat.

“So if you don’t mind me asking, where are you actually supposed to be?”

“A cabin with my brother and his fiance. It’s right past some tree farm and when I came out of town I-”

“Took a left instead of a right which is how you ended up here.” Maddie gives him a look from the passenger seat. Chim shrugs.

“I know exactly what tree farm you’re talking about. Your sense of direction doesn’t seem to be so killer.” 

Maddie pouts. “There’s no need for a sense of direction when GPS exists.”

“But GPS doesn’t work out here, does it?”

Chim’s amused grin would be annoying if it wasn’t so endearing, and when Maddie finds herself with the urge to kiss it off his face, she turns back towards the window. 

She’s thankful that their trip is short, only a few odd minutes before they reach her poor broken car still sitting on the side of the road. Chim parks in front of it, hopping out and giving a low whistle.

“Wow yeah, that is a flat tire.” Maddie still isn’t quite sure how it happened, but her front tire was completely unusable. Her driving skills had never been great, but they weren’t _that_ bad. 

She watches as Chim gets the spare tire and tools from his truck, leaning her hip against the front of it. 

“You need any help?”

“Nah I got it. I’ve changed a few tires in my time.” He sticks the jack under the car before taking off the hubcap, and holding it out to her. “The one thing you can do is hold this so I don't lose it, cause then _we’ll_ really be screwed.” 

Maddie considers his wording and how there are probably worst things then being scr-

She takes the hubcap. 

Chim gets to work loosening the nuts, wrench tightly in hand.

“So can I ask how you’re so good at everything?”

He grunts as the wrench almost slips from his grip. “Like I said, paramedic.”

“Why’d you quit?” There’s silence, but for the first time since meeting, it's awkward and stale. Maddie had meant for it to be casual conversation but the set in Chims brow suggest otherwise.

“I had a bad car accident a few years ago. Got a rod through my brain, but I lived.” He turns to her, pointing at the small ‘x’ shaped scar on his forehead. Maddie hadn’t really noticed it before, and if she had she might have tried to put two and two together before asking. “I tried to go back to work, but I couldn’t. It was too much. I moved out here for some peace and quiet and ended up really liking it.” 

“So what do you do now? Don’t you miss helping people?”

Chim turns back to the car, working on loosening the final nut. 

“Of course I do. There’s a clinic in town that I work at, and I like it. Less stressful.” 

Chim puts the wrench to the side, huffing loudly. Maddie feels terrible, really. She never would’ve asked if she knew it was so personal, so deep. Clearly there’s even more to the story, but here she is with a man who’s been nothing but kind to her from the get go and she’s pried into his personal life. 

“I just divorced my husband.” It slips out of her mouth before she can stop it. “He cheated on me three times but I kept taking him back because I was convinced it was my fault.” 

Chim stares at her for a moment, mouth agape. “I uhm. Wow. That really sucks, I’m sorry.”

The words keep spilling out, like someone turned on the tap and left it running. “It’s okay. He really sucked. Like a lot. And I don’t know why I’m telling you this because we just met but you’re really nice and cute and I think I wanted to level the playing field with my own emotional baggage. For some reason.”

She’s worried for a moment that she’s ruined whatever good graces she had left with the universe until Chim smiles, scratching his beard. 

“You think I’m cute?”

Maddie groans. “ _That’s_ what you took from my speech?”

Chim laughs and it’s the loudest thing in the whole damn California forest and for the first time that day, Maddie laughs too. 

Chim catches his breath after a moment, eyes sparkling. “So I guess we’re square then, on uh revealing personal information.”

Maddie nods curtly, holding back a smile. “Yes, I think we are.” 

The air feels clearer now as Chim get’s back to work on the car, and Maddie’s happy when the conversation continues (into lighter territory of course). 

Chim talks about his garden while he pumps the car jack so he can remove the tire and Maddie is _mostly_ paying attention to him because _“arms arms arms my_ **_god_ ** _his biceps”._

She even catches a glimpse of a shoulder tattoo that is rather unfairly hidden by his shirt sleeve. 

Maddie holds the bits and pieces so they don’t roll down the road, and she laughs at Chim’s puns and jokes as he puts on her new tire. 

The whole process only takes about 15 minutes, but it’s the best 15 minutes Maddie’s had in weeks.

Before she knows it, Chim’s returned his tools and the broken tire to his car, and they’re left standing in the middle of the road staring at each other.

“Well I should-”

“Yeah maybe-”

They both pause and Maddie snickers before holding up a finger. “Wait one sec.”

She goes to her car, and throws her backpack in, reaching across to the glovebox and rooting around inside. When she finds her prize she heads back over to Chim, grabbing his arm.

He stays silent as pen ink presses into his skin, smiling as he realizes what she’s writing.

“If you’d ever like to experience civilization for a few days-” Maddie finishes off her number with a heart at the end. “You should give me a call.”

“And if you ever would like some isolation….you know where to find me.” 

She lets go of his arm, and the overwhelming urge to hug him or kiss him on the cheek fills her for just a moment. Before she can decide if it’s a good idea or not, Chim takes a step back, a bashful look crossing his face.

Maybe he had the same idea.

“Well I should really get going but, all things considered, it was really nice meeting you Maddie.”

Maddie’s heart skips a beat at the sweet way her name sounds on his lips, and she waves gently. “You too.” 

Chim insists that she leave first, just so he can make sure her car is in working order. When Maddie gets in and starts it, she’s pleased to find that her car no longer feels like it’s sinking into the road. She waves one more time out the window before backing up and turning around so she can head back the way she came and actually go to see Buck. 

She honks the horn as she drives away, and while she can’t see him, she hopes it made Chim smile.

It doesn’t take her long to get to where she made her wrong turn, now seeing the sign she was originally looking for nestled amongst the trees. She chides herself for her mistake when her phone pings. 

She sighs happily, pulling off to the side of the road. Service, _glorious_ cell phone service. 

She unlocks it to find multiple worried messages from her brother, which she responds to him with a simple _‘on my way’._

The newest text is from an unknown sender, but Maddie doesn’t need a name to know who it’s from.

_“practically had to stand on my roof to send this. anyway now you have my number too. safe travels”_

Maddie laughs, letting her head rest against the window. She pockets her phone, getting back onto the road and _finally_ making the correct turn, heading towards her brother.

Not that the turn she ended up making today was wrong. Just a little different. Unexpected even.

But certainly not wrong. 


End file.
